SCOM - Renew Certificates

There are quite a few blog posts out there that explain in detail on how to generate and install certificates on SCOM and the SCOM Agents, but rarely on the topic of renewing the SCOM and SCOM Agents certificates.

The below procedure helped me to renew my environments certificates.
Thanks to Roel Knippen for sharing the process.

System Center 2016 - Launch Date

System Center 2016 will be launched at the Microsoft Ignite conference in September 2016.

Read the full article here:  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/systemcenter/2016/07/12/system-center-2016-to-launch-in-september/

SCOM 2012 no option to save or export reports to CSV files

Thanks to one of my colleagues, Ehren Schmidt, for pointing this out to me.

Running reports in SCOM is quite easy. Then you try and save/export the report and you don't get the option to save the report as an CSV file.

Here is the quick solution to your problems:

• Logon to the server where you have installed the SCOM Reporting feature.
• Locate the rsreportserver.config file and open it in notepad.
• Look for the below section under the <render> tab
• Change the value from false to true.

• Restart the reporting service.
• Re-run the report. The CSV export/save option is now available.

Hope that this post was helpful.

UserVoice for SCOM - Let your voice be heard!

The product group has opened a UserVoice for SCOM. You can submit your ideas or vote on the ones you’d like to see. All of the feedback you share in these forums will be monitored and reviewed by the Microsoft Engineering Teams responsible for building SCOM.

This is where we need to let Microsoft know what we as SCOM Engineers want in our product.

http://systemcenterom.uservoice.com/

Available SCOM 2012, SCOM 2012 SP1 and SCOM 2012 R2 Update Rollup list

Here is a list and links to the Update Rollup's (UR) that is available for SCOM 2012, SCOM 2012 SP1 and SCOM 2012 R2. The updates are listed according to build number. Update Rollup build numbers that have a larger numeric value include the fixes from all previously released update rollup packages. Any version of SCOM 2012 can be updated to a later-version update rollup. You cannot uninstall a later-version update rollup to downgrade to an earlier-version update rollup.

This post will not cover the Step-by-Step installation/implementation of the Update Rollup's. Where applicable, I will add a link to a article for the Step-by-Step.

Get-SCOMGroup List of Computers

Sometimes you just want to get a list of computers that are members of a group, and just want their names. This is pretty easy using the cmdlet Get-SCOMGroup, just use the –DisplayName switch and add the name of the group and pipe it to the cmdlet Get-SCOMClassInstance.

To see what options are available at this point pipe it Get-Member and you will see a nice list of properties/methods available to the object in the pipe line.

An Important Note to make at this point, what is in the pipeline right now are objects, and can still be massaged with PowerShell very easily. So you could sort by DisplayName and then just dump it out to a table just showing display name.

Examples of what is described above:

# To load the opsmgr cmdlets, import the module first
Import-Module OperationsManager

# To find out what options are available to your output of the list of objects in the group use Get-Member cmdlet
Get-SCOMGroup -DisplayName "Your_Computer_Group_Name" | Get-SCOMClassInstance | Get-Member

# After looking at the Get-Member output we decide that DisplayName will work best
Get-SCOMGroup -DisplayName "Your_Computer_Group_Name" | Get-SCOMClassInstance | Sort DisplayName | Format-Table DisplayName

This is an easy way to get a list of computers that are members of a group. Something that I need to do quite frequently these days.

Hope that this post was helpful.

SCOM 2012 R2 now has support for SQL 2014

We are pleased to announce that System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager (OpsMgr 2012 R2) now supports SQL Server 2014 Enterprise, Standard (64-bit) as its database. If you choose to use SQL 2014, below are a couple known issues and workarounds you’ll want to be aware of.

Issue: Installation to a SQL 2014 cluster using Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) is blocked by SCOM 2012 setup.

Workaround: Deploy to a physical server and then use the documentation here to move the database to the CSV.

Issue: Upgrade of SQL SRS is blocked due to SCOM 2012 use of Custom Security Extensions.

Workaround: Uninstall SCOM Reporting and run ResetSRS.exe to clear the custom security extensions. Once that is complete, upgrade SQL and install SCOM 2012 reporting again. Can find similar steps in the documentation here.

Hope that this post was helpful.

Powershell Commands to Configure Gateway Server/Agent Failover

Why do we need to configure failover servers for Gateway Servers and Agents? 

When an Agent is installed and configured to report to a Management Server, it is automatically configured to fail over to ANY other Management Servers. So, if its assigned Management Server goes down, it will randomly pick any other Management Server in the Management Group to connect to (this could actually be a bad thing for large Management Groups, because some Agents will end up reporting to the RMS, which can cause performance problems.... but that’s for a separate blog post).

When an Agent is installed and configured to report to a Gateway Server, no failover servers are automatically configured. So, if the Gateway Server goes down, the Agents will not be able to send any data to the Management Group.

Also, when a Gateway Server is installed, it is configured to report to a specific Management Server and no failover is automatically configured. So, if the Gateway Server’s Management Server goes down, the Gateway Server cannot send any data to the Management Group.

To handle the above scenarios, we must configure the Gateway Server to be able to connect to additional Management Servers, and we must configure the Gateway Agents to be able to connect to additional Gateway Servers. This cannot be done in the OpsMgr Console, and must be done with PowerShell commands.

Notes: 

If a Gateway Server is in a Domain that is not trusted by the Domain where OpsMgr is installed, then you will be using Certificates for the Gateway to authenticate with it’s Management Server. If you configure the Gateway to be able to fail over to another Management Server, it (the failover Management Server) must also have an authentication Certificate installed and configured.

For the Gateway Agent Failover, if the Agents/Gateway are in a Domain that is not trusted by the Domain where OpsMgr is installed, then the Gateway Server that is used for Agent failover must be installed in this same domain (and must have an authentication Certificate installed and configured).

How to Get the Failover Management Servers for your SCOM Agents

Because of some issues arising on a large SCOM environment, I decided to work with PowerShell to create and run a script to see if the SCOM Agents has a Failover Management server.

Note: Use PowerShell to your advantage. It is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal.

Start off by getting the members of the "Get-SCOMAgent" PowerShell command

Get-SCOMAgent | Get-Member

You will likely see something like this…

As you see GetFailoverManagementServers is a collection, therefore this method could contain more than one entry. PrimaryManagementServerName is just a simple string property so we don’t have to do anything special.

System Center Operations Manager Management Pack Authoring

Always wondered how they design/create their own custom System Center Operations Manager Management Pack?

There is a couple of ways to create your own custom management pack.

Here are the 3 most common ways in doing that:

1. Silect MP Author - View post here
2. Visual Studio - Free download here (Visual Studio 2013 Community)
3. XML - Definitely not the easiest to start with

Still "lost" in where to start? Here is a link to the Microsoft Virtual Academy course on what you will need to know on where to start designing/creating your very own custom management pack.

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/system-center-2012-r2-operations-manager-management-pack

Please feel free to share/like or post your ideas on any custom management packs that you are busy creating.

Happy authoring!!

Silect MPAuthor

Silect MP Author is a tool used for creating/authoring SCOM Management Packs.

They have shipped the new Service Pack 3 version of the tool.
http://www.silect.com/mp-author

You can download the tool here: http://www.silect.com/content/mp-author-free-download-form

If you require any assistance, you can view the online support media at http://www.silect.com/mp-author-support or email them at info@silect.com

Here is a the new features that comes with SP3 (Copied it from their site):

• Improved knowledge viewing and editing in multiple language environments 
• Improved XML editing 
• New feature to "Check for missing display names" 
• Added ability to use base classes other than LocalApplication when creating new classes 
• Additional MP elements are displayed 
• Added a drop down list of $$ parameters for alert messages 
• Schedule property grid made more user friendly 
• Improvements to memory usage
• We've also fixed a number of bugs in this release.

Hope that this quick post was helpful.

Operations Manager 2012 – Useful PowerShell Commands and Scripts

Here are some useful PowerShell Commands and Scripts that can help you in your environment.

Note : Change the values in red to the standards of your environment.

Install Prerequisites 2012/2012r2 Management Server and/or Console:

$dwnld = 'C:\File_Download_Location\SCOM2012R2Prereqs'
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$RPTurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/B/7/FB728406-A1EE-4AB5-9C56-74EB8BDDF2FF/ReportViewer.msi'
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\ReportViewer.msi")
  
$RPTurl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239644&clcid=0x409'
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\SQLSysClrTypes.msi")
  
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\SQLSysClrTypes.msi" -ArgumentList '/q' -Wait
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\ReportViewer.msi" -ArgumentList '/q' -Wait

Creating Dynamic Groups With Windows Computer Objects and Health Service Watcher Objects

It has been a well known requirement for most customers, to be able to Create Groups of Windows Computers that also contain corresponding Health Service Watcher objects. This was needed for Alert Notification subscriptions so that different teams could receive alert notifications filtered by groups, but also include alerts from the Watcher, such as Heartbeat failure and Computer Unreachable.

Below you will find the code for SCOM 2007x and SCOM 2012x.

PowerShell & System Center 2012

A few days ago Microsoft published a cmdlet reference for System Center 2012, containing many documents about all available PowerShell cmdlets for the System Center 2012 family.

These 37 references can be downloaded from here:

1. SC2012_AppController_Cmdlets.pdf
2. SC2012_DPM_Cmdlets.doc
3. SC2012_DPM_Cmdlets.pdf
4. SC2012_OpsMgr_Cmdlets.doc
5. SC2012_OpsMgr_Cmdlets.pdf
6. SC2012_VMM_Cmdlets.doc
7. SC2012_VMM_Cmdlets.pdf
8. SC2012R2_AppController_Cmdlets.doc
9. SC2012R2_AppController_Cmdlets.pdf

SCOM 2012 R2: FINALLY The Collation Settings Issue Is Addressed!

The past
As we all know up to SCOM 2012 R2 the Collation Settings of the SCOM SQL databases was crucial and ONLY SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS worked, even though Microsoft stated differently.
Main reason here was that the installer of SCOM installed the Data Warehouse database with this SQL Collation setting (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS) no matter what (SQL) Collation Setting the SQL instance itself was running.

And when there is a mismatch between the (SQL) Collation settings of both SCOM SQL databases (OperationsManager & Data Warehouse) you could end up in situations like these. Only a reinstall would solve that issue OR – when being blessed with really power SQL DBAs – the databases could be preserved while modifying the SQL Collation Settings.

Speeding up the SCOM Console

Beware! When editing the registry one can cause damage which cannot be undone. So be careful when performing the procedure mentioned in this blogposting. Always make an export of the registry keys before deleting ANYTHING from the registry.

Ok, having said that, there is a nice trick to get the SCOM Console running faster.

At a customers site I bumped into a situation where the SCOM operators complained about the performance of the SCOM Console. And they were right. It was very sluggish. So I checked the RMS and the related SQL server. These servers were performing just fine. No glitch what so ever. They were dimensioned properly (enough cpu, RAM and fast disks) and when running perfmon on those servers, all was well.

So the cause of the sluggish SCOM Consoles wasn't to be found there. Then I turned my attention to the systems of the SCOM Operators. First I found that they were running the SCOM Consoles with the /ClearCache command.

They started with SCOM when it came RTM and with RTM it was advised to use that switch. But when they upgraded to SP1, they were still using this switch. But it is Best Practice only to use this switch when there are problems with the SCOM Console. Under any other circumstances this switch is not to be used. So I deleted this switch.

Agents on Windows 2012 R2 Domain Controllers can stop responding or heart-beating

This is an issue I have been tracking for some time. When you deploy SCOM 2012 Agents on Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controllers, it is possible for the agents to stop responding and or sending heartbeats. The agent services will still be running. You will see the events in the OpsMgr event log stop processing, and you might see heartbeat failures as well. I have personally seen this on both of my Windows 2012 R2 domain controllers, which also run DNS and DHCP, and have the AD, DNS, and DHCP management packs imported.

WMI, SCOM and Windows 2003 server

On many W2K03 servers WMI can get hosed when the SCOM Agent is installed. This is not due to the SCOM Agent but due to the fact that WMI on W2K03 servers is a bit instable.

Since the SCOM Agent utilizes WMI to its fullest extend, the less stronger parts of WMI will be giving problems. There are ways to 'reset' WMI but there is also a hotfix for it. Look here for this hotfix.

Always read the KB article completely so one knows whether this hotfix applies to their situation as well.

However, when one wants to reregister the WMI repository on a W2K03 server this script will do the trick:

Windows Azure Symbol/Icon Set

Microsoft has published a free symbol/icon set for Windows Azure. This set can be used with Visio and PowerPoint.
For example:

The same zip file contains all symbols and icons as PNG files as well, so you can use them for other applications as well. Download the zip file from here.

Hope that this post was helpful.

System Center 2012: PowerShell Cmdlets

Microsoft has released documents containing ALL the Cmdlets available for ALL the System Center 2012 components.

Since System Center 2012 is PowerShell driven, there is a HUGE collection of cmdlets: